AI-Ball
|dislikes = *Dirty jokes *Going outside the simulation}} “They don’t call me Drift King for nothing!” —''Aiba, in So Sejima's Somnium'' AI-Ball, also known as Aiba '(アイボゥ, ''Aibo), is the second protagonist featured in ''AI: The Somnium Files'''' and a character featured in the Lemniscate YouTube series.'' She is an artificial intelligence that resides within Kaname Date's left artificial eye. Together with Date, she works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to solve crimes and catch criminals, in particular, the culprit of the Cyclops Serial Killings. She has the ability to delve into a person's Somnium and extract testimonies and memories from various persons of interest. Appearance In the real world, Aiba primarily takes the form of a single eyeball with a yellow iris, which most of the time is retained within Kaname Date's empty eye socket. When she is detached from Date and using her motor functions, she adopts a hamster-like mascot appearance. Her projected skin is transparent and grey, with black soles on her hands and feet. Her skin is more like a gelatinous substance, where on the inside her optic nerve is visible as a sort of pink spine. In the Somnium world, Aiba takes the form of a young human girl. Her skin is transparent and pale, with parts of her endoskeleton visible through her arms and legs. Her hair is white, long, and unkempt, reaching down to her legs, with three pink streaks that light up like an electric current. She wears a long white dress that reaches her waist, with black and pink patterns around the edges and with gaps on her back and shoulders. Her upper legs have the same black and pink patterns, as either tattoos or some imprinted pattern. Her eyes are pink in this form, in contrast to the her hamster form's yellow motif. Personality She is cold and calculating but has personality when it comes to Date; she disapproves of many of Date's habits, be them chocolate collecting or cabaret clubs, to the point of vocally teasing him, but overall trusts him. However, she has shown the ability to stand up to Date and voice her opinion, as well as her own feelings regarding investigations. She's also something of a nerd, wanting to make dramatic entrances parodying Terminator and looking into Ota's otaku hobbies for "research." Story TBA Appearances Gallery Aiba.jpg|AI-Ball's profile Aiba clean fullbody.png|AI-Ball in full view Aiba face.png|AI-Ball as an icon Aiba bg.png|AI-Ball in a... background design? Pikachu girl.jpg|AI-Ball in the Somnium World Aiba and Mizuki.jpg|AI-Ball with Mizuki in the Somnium Aiba Profile.jpg|Aiba (profile) Somnaiba.jpg|Somnaiba (profile) Trivia Etymology * The name '''AI-Ball is a pun on the word "eyeball" (which references her role as Kaname Date's eye) and the term A.I. (as she is an artificial intelligence). The english nickname Aiba seems to just be a shortened version of that name. ** The Japanese version of her nickname, Aibo (アイボ) can be read as Aibō (相棒), which is police slang for "partner", referencing her role as Kaname Date's partner. Date even calls her his (相棒) in the Japanese version of the game. General * Aiba and Kaname Date were both the first characters introduced for this game, appearing in the announcement trailer. However, Aiba remained unnamed and her role never directly addressed for several months until interviews released after the second trailer, leading to much speculation about her role in the story until then. * Kotaro Uchikoshi's concept for an artificial intelligence residing in an artificial eye was inspired by the manga series Goku Midnight Eye, in which a detective gains a cybernetic eye that can assist him in investigations.A9VG interview (translation here) ** When pitching the character to the designer Yūsuke Kozaki, Uchikoshi imagined Aiba to look similar to the character Medama-Oyaji from the manga and animated series GeGeGe no Kitarō. Medama-Oyaji is a tiny bipedal creature with human-looking flesh, but contains a giant eye-ball as his entire head. Uchikoshi was surprised when, instead of the frightening-looking humanoid, he instead received a cute animal design.Anime Expo 2019 "AI: THE SOMNIUM FILE" panel ** The animal design planned for Aiba was originally meant to be a frog. It was since changed to a hamster.Spike Chunsoft 8/30 Stream for AI: The Somnium Files * According to an interview with Siliconera, Aiba is Assistant Director Akira Okada's favorite character in the game. * In a fan-made Character Poll for ''AI: The Somnium Files'' held on Twitter, Aiba came in 2nd place. * Her favorite number is 41205. When using a letter-number cipher to decode it, it translates to "DATE." References Category:Characters Category:AI: The Somnium Files Characters Category:Female Characters Category:MPD officers Category:Playable Characters